The mistakes I regret in this hobby

Hello everybody!

When repotting some of my old sundews I started thinking my past in this hobby. I do regret losses of some plants and doing things wrong way and here is a blog post about them, just to show you that you can learn from your mistakes.

1. Nepenthes 'Rebecca Soper' my latest loss. Month or so ago plants three largest stems dried for no good reason so I cut them off. Few weeks ago the plant had two smaller growing points, of which one had mold attack and another just turned black. This is one of my fav neps and it was really hard to see it doing so bad. After all life was gone from the pot I just tuck my hand in the pot and scooped the media on a newspaper and I was terrified to see how the soil had become a snail and slug farm. I then took the media outside and boiled it to kill the slugs and snails and keeping them from not infesting my or my neighbor's gardens. Rule number one when dealing with ready potted plants: Replace the original, possibly slug infested soil, with your own soil mix. Also be sure to use clean pots.

2. Drosera slackii with a rule Don't buy a fancy plant without making sure you can provide it the conditions it needs. When I saw D. slackii on the internet I just thought "WHoa! A sundew that can grow up to 9 cm wide. I gotta get that now." I did not do enough googlin' about the species, which likes more cooler temperatures than I could provide to it. Well sphagnum based potting mix could have saved it but it was just too late. Do your homework so you don't need to write angst filled blog posts like this.

3. Nepenthes veitchii 'Golden Perisome' the 1st. Bought this as a lowland plant and gave it more like intermediate condition. It grew but just weaker and weaker until it got moldy. On a cold winters day I just got fed up with the plant. To protect the rest of my collection I threw N. veitchii 'Golden Perisome' the 1st into the snow. Rule number three: Remember the ventilation.

4. Nepenthes sanguinea is my second largest regretted loss in my whole time growing carnivorous plants and it died because I lost it. The plant was moved temporarily to another place for cleaning terraria. I didn't find the plant until it was too late and the plant had dried. As a brief reminder that even the most  forgiving plants have their limits. But not D. capensis or U. subulata, they're almost immortal.

5. Dionaea muscipula. Almost everybody growing carnivorous plants has killed one of these. I've killed at least three of these but the one I have now has survived one or two winters already. The rule here is: Thank science for cheap tissue cultured plants so we don't need to take plants from the wilds. I wait for the news about police getting the culprits caught. (If you don't know what I'm talking about then read the previous blog post.)

6. Non registered post packets. This happened to me once: I bought few plants from this one person, who I think is very trustworthy and good seller. When choosing the shipment type I chose unregistered because it was cheapest and the packets move pretty fast in EU. Well the Finnish or the other post office lost my packet for a while and it took me was it 2 or 3 weeks to get the packet, I don't really remember. There  were two plants, of which one survived and other, eventually the more expensive plant had rot. It absolutely was post office's fault but on the other hand I could have get some refunds from the post office because of what happened but past is past. Rule is: Prefer registered shipping. It really is worth it. For registered packets are handled outside of the normal packet traffic, possibilities getting registered packet in time are higher and you also get the tracking code.

7. Various Sarracenia pitcher plants. My second carnivorous plant to be grown was a Sarracenia purpurea, bought along with P. x 'Tina' and D. capensis 'Albino', which are still alive and doing fine. The problem with these plants for me was dormancy. I tried placing them in a cold sauna, a cellar, in a ventilation window and last two times in a garage and refridgerator, which were the best places for me, until I try building a bog garden. Rule for this is: Try, fail, and learn from your mistakes which kind of compresses the whole idea of this blog post.

Now after this purge from the negative past karma I'm ready to move forward and extend my growlist even more.

In case you wonder why no pictures then here's the reason, I'm on a holiday while doing some babysitting. On the other side of Finland from where I live. Here I'm just hanging out with my sister and trying to hunt some new plants for my collection. See you again in a week or so. Until then "Hakuna matata" (it means no worries) and enjoy the summer if you live on the northern hemisphere.

Also if any of you my dear readers have extras of the following then please contact me for possibility of swap or money. Plants are Utricularia longifolia x alpina, nelumbifolia x geminiloba, nephrophylla (other than white flowered form), nephrophylla x geminiloba or vice versa, nephrophylla x nelumbifolia or vice versa and 'Jitka' (quelchii x praetermissa).

Week of awesomeness!

This week is pretty awesome. You want to know why? Of course you do.
It is not for the weather, this day has been so far very cloudy and rainy day indeed but at least I get some rainwater collected for my plants. Plants, they are the reason why this day is awesome.

Three days ago I got one of the plants that I've adored since I googled Nepenthes and saw picture of pig beautiful pitcher of Nepenthes veitchii. I had this plant for a while but during the long, dark Finnish winter the plant got mold and after a long fight with no fungicides (They don't sell them for normal consumers in Finland. I don't know why.) the plant was infected by powdery mildew so badly that I had to throw the plant outside to the snow, all this to protect the rest of my precious collection. Now I have fungicide and a new Nepenthes veitchii 'Golden Perisome' which is of course a lowland form. Some lowland forms of N. veitchii seem to have more elongated pitcher shape compared to highland forms. In google only picture of this plant's adult pitcher is at http://www.nepenthesaroundthehouse.com/nveitch.htm and it does not seem too elongated compared to for example picture of a plant at http://www.cpjungle.com/nucvei.htm.
   So first addition to my collection in this week was Nepenthes veitchii 'Golden Perisome.' Thanks for CPUK's pmatil for this amazing plant!

N. veitchii 'Golden Perisome'

When potting N. veitchii I remembered that 2 of my Nepenthes pitcherplants have declined to grow for me for a while. These two Neps are N. albomarginata and N. ampullaria 'BR x H.' During thei repotting I noticed why they haven't grown well for a while. First reason for their reduced growth was of course peat based soil that has become like a brick. Second reason but this is mainly for Nepenthes ampullaria, it's roots have become massive. I swear in the pot there were many about 20cm(7.8") long roots, which had grown through the bottom gravel of the pot. Now the two plants have been repotted into fresh sphagnum and sealed in plastic bags for few days to improve their recovery by raising the humidity near to 100%.

N. ampullaria 'Brunei Red' x 'Harlequin' recovering.

Second are the plants that I received two days ago, Utricularia livida and Utricularia sandersonii. I've had these both in my collections earlier but they both somehow died. U. sandersonii died in sunburn and U. livida was first overgrown by moss and after that happened something I'm uncertain of and the plant just threw in the towel. Thank you Matilda from Finnish carnivorous plants forum for these!

And the best for the last! Yesterday's packet, which included Darlingtonia californica, Drosera schizandra, Pinguicula crystalina, Pinguicula grandiflora and Sarracenia flava var rubricorpora, of which the first 2 are my most waited plants.

My Darling in a pot with diameter of 18cm (7")

Potting mix is pure sphagnum and the plant is potted in a big white plastic pot and placed im my greenhouse.

Sarracenia flava. var. rubricorpora will hopefully show it's characteristic coloration later in this season.

"What are you taking pictures of? Get off my yard"

For me it is now baking for my graduation party, yes I'm a high school graduate and I shall press the fancy white cap on my head in a week. Last in this post, here's a picture of a squirrel wishing all of you a happy summer and great weather for holidays. Cheers!

Not dead yet! + New plants

Hello everybody!

First of all apologies for being not so active writing here but I have my reasons. I had the worst flu I've ever had with some fever(not Bieber fever, Justin Bieber visited Finland recently though and a friend of mine went to his concert and liked it) so I really had no energy to update this blog. I've also traveled a bit and working on some other important projects.

Summer is luckily just around the corner here in eastern Finland. Weather forecast shows that during next 10 days temperatures will range between +8 °C(46.4°F)  and +15°C(59°F) during days and during nights between -1(30.2°F) and +5°C(41 °F ). In May I will move the main part of my collection to the greenhouse again and also receive some of the plants that I have already booked.

Now for the main course. I have a new terraria. This old aquarium is about 74 cm (29.1") long, 33 cm (12.9") wide and 36 cm (14.2") high so it can hold in about 85 liters of water, which is roughly 22.5 US gallons. Total price for this used aluminium framed aquarium with fluorescent light with a plant tube and a 80 cm(31.5") high table was just 35 euros which equals 46 USD.


How the terraria looked soon after buying it.

The only things I really needed to add for this to work better with my plants were three walls and bottom of the terraria, which got aluminium foil cover to reflect light back to plants and make the terraria more eco friendly. Only things I need to make it work even better are the glass cover which I'm going to purchase when I have time during the next week, a PC fan from my old terrarium, a hygrometer and a thermometer. Without the glass cover humidity seems to stay between 50 and 60%, and I think my lowland nepenthes will appreciate higher humidity levels.

For now I've moved my Nepenthes pitcher plants into this new terraria. In their older growth space my Nepenthes didn't receive enough light nor humidity and that's why they look really sick now. The older terraria for Nepenthes was planned to be only temporary terrarium for them but my plans changed just a bit.


Nepenthes 'Rebecca Soper' looking a bit anemic. It will start pitcher production soon I hope.


N. albomarginata, rafflesiana, x 'Ventrata' and Utricularia longifolia settling to their new growth space.


Trying something artistic with N. ampullaria 'Brunei Red x Harlequin'


D. omissa x pulchella flowered again. Seriously, this is the easiest pygmy sundew I know. Maybe someday I could get few more easy to grow pygmy sundews. Any recommendations about which plants would fit in my criteria?

Now after lot of reading let me introduce you to my new plants.

Brocchinia reducta

D. filiformis
D. intermedia
D. intermedia x filiformis
D. rotundifolia
D. x 'obovata'

G. aurea
G. filiformis
G. hispidula
G. flexuosa 'Furnas, Minas Gerais'
G. roraimensis 'Cerro Huachamacari'

U. biloba
U. dichotoma
U. flaccida
U. minutissima 'Gunung Jerai'
U. minutissima 'Gunung Tahan'
U. monanthos
U. prehensilis
U. tricolor
U. spec. Hermanus

Thank you Krzysztof Ciesielski!

After a while my all new terraria looked like this:

I think I already need to get second and even third old aquarium to transform into a terraria. Two other terraria I have are two plastic storage boxes covered with aluminium foil, lit by megaman plant ESL with so far good results.


Couple of D. paradoxa are at last warming up to each other and are flowering at the same time. Hope to have seeds if I succeed in cross pollinating them.


Brocchinia reducta will be in terraria for a while until I will move it on my windowsill and greenhouse.


The 5 Genlisea cousins, from top left corner clockwise G. hispidula, G. filiformis, G. roraimensis 'Cerro Huachamari', G. flexuosa 'Furnas, Minas Gerais, Brazil' and G. aurea. lower corner of this pic there are also 2 blurry soon to bloom D. tomentosas.

As we Finns say in form of an old folk poem which was kind of a rule of when there's summer in Finland:

Kuu kiurusta kesään
puoli kuuta peipposesta
västäräkistä vähäsen
pääskysestä ei päivääkään.

or in English:

Moon to summer from skylark
half moon less from finch
from wagtail not too long
from swallow not a day.

The swallows have returned to Finland, so in other words summer is also here here. In summer I will again take most of my collection outdoors or to greenhouse. I have made blueprints for my bog garden and will soon turn it into reality. 

We get more light and plants start to grow better after a long winter so there will me more updates and it will surely not take me another 2 months or how long was it again, to make a new blog post.

Happy growing. Give lots of sunlight to your plants and also to yourself!

Utricularia asplundii

Today arrived the first packet for this year containing seeds of beautiful plant named Utricularia asplundii. Thanks to Sebulon! I will inform you all about how the seeds will grow.



Testing macro mode on  Phalaenopsis flower.


Cephalotus follicularis. Easy grower at least under my conditions. Biggest plant has made 2 new and smaller plant one new growing point.


Nepenthes veitchii 'Golden perisome' has now this 3 cm(1.18") high pitcherwith some nice colour.

Spring coming

Howdy! Spring is now coming to Finland too. Some kind of Crocus sp. Flowering outdoors If you look carefully you will see a bumblebee in the most right of the flowers.

Phalaenopsis orchid continues making flowers to old flowerstalk.

Ludisia discolor cuttings growing alongside with Nepenthes ampullaria 'Brunei Red' x 'Harlequin'


N. ampullaria's so far biggest pitcher. It's 7 cm (2.7") high including the height of lid.

Pinguicula emarginata is enjoying the new growing light.

Pinguicula laueana is growing nicely too. It's just making more and more leaves and growing more rapidly. I wish to see the plant flowering someday.

Utricularia livida 'Blue' gaining a nice color on it's flower.

Flower of seedgrown Utricularia calycifida from Gran Sabana.

Flower of Utricularia nephrophylla from Serra dos Orgaos, Brazil. Inspired by Sebulon from CPUK I wanted to see how root system of my Utricularia alpina is doing. Here's the plant.


and here's the root system

  I'd say that's pretty well if you notice that when I got this plant it had only two leaves and one tuber. It tried to flower for me but then I over watered it and the flowerstalk rot away.
Spring coming and temperatures are slowly going up. I think I can start ordering plants in following few weeks if the temperatures keep rising so that we will not have frost during night. Enjoy the spring!

December pics

U. calycifida 'Lavinia Whateley' has been growing really nicely since it arrived. Maybe I will take few leaf cuttings just to make it more bushier.



U. reniformis grows so nicely. Hopefully in future I will see some flowers too.



P. emarginatas are really beautiful and they really are growing out of their pot in width.



Who said that D. burmannii is annual? Because it isn't. After flowering this small plant is still growing nicely. Hopefully plants originated from humpty doo will be as marvelous little plants. And it is always fascinating to look at the tentacles and their rapid movement.



Here thay are. My first successful pygmy sundews grown from gemmae.



N. veitchii 'Golden Perisome' from Bario. Growing slowly but easily.



Full view of N. ampullaria 'Brunei red' x 'Harlequin'
And yes. You saw it there. A basal shot.





Largest pitcher at the moment.



About 5,5 cm high.

And here's for those who say that orchids are difficult to grow, Ludisia discolor, in flower, grown in a cup of water, placed on a north facing window for a half year.

The BIG photo update!

Starts with Pinguicula emarginata


Followed by other Pinguicula such as Pinguicula laueana


Pinguicula esseriana. So far the loveliest Pinguicula that I grow.


Seedlings of Pinguicula lusitanica

Continuing with other plants of Lentibulariaceae family. Such as...


Utricularia livida


The blue flowered form of Utricularia livida


Utricularia uniflora


seedgrown Utricularia calycifida from Gran Sabana, Venezuela


Utricularia sandersonii


Utricularia pubescens


Utricularia alpina is growing new leaves at the same time


It's root are growing out of the pot much sooner than I predicted


Genlisea violacea from Grao Mogol, Brazil.


Genlisea lobata x violacea

After So many plants from Lentibulariaceae family some pitchers.


Nepenthes ampullaria 'Brunei Red' x 'Harlequin'


Newest pitcher is only a bit smaller than those which plant had when it came to me. This pitcher is about 5 cm(2") high.


Nepenthes veitchii 'Golden Perisome' from Bario, Malaysia. The slowest growing Nepenthes that I own.


Nepenthes rafflesiana made it's largest pitcher so far. pitcher is 7 cm(2,7") high


Who said that Finland is cold all year rounf. During summer we can even grow Nepenthes x Ventrata outdoors. Pitcher is about 10 cm(4") high and is producing so much nectar that some of it drains on the floor. Plant has been growing outdoors since June.


Cephalotus follicularis baby plant received from CZ plants is showing some signs of growth.

Then my favourite plants. The sundews.

Starting with Drosera intermedia from Gran Sabana, Venezuela


Followed by Drosera adelae


Drosera spatulata var. lovellae 'Bloody Red'


From left to right Drosera capensis normal form and Drosera capensis red form.


Drosera aliceae


Young Drosera madagascariensis


Drosera neocaledonica slowly recovering


Drosera binata is vigorous psecies for me. Making tens of new leaves at the same time and even 2 flowerstalks.


Drosera paradoxa has grown longer leaves since I got it


Drosera burmannii is growing a flowerstalk

Thanks for reading my blog. Happy growing!